Expert: Bea Harrell - 4/9/2008

Question
Bea,
I am working on the same pattern as the one I pasted below from 2006. I can't seem to get a clear answer. It's a Lion Brand pattern. My biggest question is it says to increase 1 stitch in the beginning of 2 rows and keep in pattern. You can not keep in pattern and increase one stitch. Do you know how to do this?



Expert: Bea Harrell
Date: 7/21/2006
Subject: increasing stitches

Question
my pattern states:
ch 18(20,22), work 4 rows griddle stitch.
Next row -- keeping in pattern, inc 1 st at beg of next 2 rows--18(20,22) sts: work 3 rows even. repeat these 4 rows 7(8,9)times- 32(36,40) sts

when it says "repeat these 4 rows"  aren't there 5 rows, the 2 inc rows and the 3 work even rows, I am confused, can you help?  Thank you  Rita  

Answer
Hey, Annette/Rita!  Just do the increase at the beginning of the rows, and then keep to pattern for the remainder of the row. As for the "4 rows" you're right, it would seem to be 5 rows, UNLESS, they are counting the first instruction as one. You'll have to rely on your stitch count here. So, after you work the three rows even, then do one row of the increase. Your stitch count should be ok here if you're suppose to do only one of the increase. If it doesn't match, count the next row of stitches before you actually do it, and see if the stitch count matches the pattern count. Hope this helps!

Best,  Bea